Books

Brawl on the Beach: The Making of an Absurdist Masterpiece

By Stan Persky | November 2, 2016

How Albert Camus’s literary classic came into being, despite an absurd world and an absent divinity.

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Mein Trumpf, or Through a Cracked Crystal Ball Darkly

By Stan Persky | October 17, 2016

Reading the far-right subculture.

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In Madrid: Landscape with Ghosts

By Stan Persky | September 5, 2016

In Spain’s capital there are absent poets, the absence of government, and terrace cafes on a late summer afternoon

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Say Something

By Stan Persky | July 17, 2016

What distinguishes humans from other animals? Here’s Noam Chomsky on the language question.

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Twitter Storm Spatters Elderly Writers Talese and Trillin

By Stan Persky | April 13, 2016

Veteran writers Gay Talese and Calvin Trillin come under digital fire. The Old People’s Review of Books rushes to their defense.

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Letter from Berlin: What Did You Do in the Cold War, Daddy?

By Stan Persky | February 29, 2016

Eyes on the Spies. Revisiting the Cold War with Steven Spielberg and John le Carre.

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Losing Sleep

By Brian Fawcett | February 14, 2016

Brian Fawcett tries to figure out why Nino Ricci’s new novel, Sleep, didn’t register with Canada’s Book Prize Juries.

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Some Second Growth Poetry (and it’s good!)

By John Harris | September 21, 2015

John Harris on “second growth” poet Fabienne Calvert Filteau.

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A True Blast from the Past

By Brian Fawcett | July 27, 2015

Brian Fawcett finally reads Cyril Connolly’s The Evening Colonnade after 40 years. He wishes he hadn’t waited so long.

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Letter from Berlin: Quo Vadis, Greece?

By Stan Persky | July 24, 2015

Questions about Greece that maybe even the Delphic oracle can’t answer.

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